'
Eva mused a moment. Then, looking up, she said, 'Fakredeen, it is you
who told the Queen this story. You are the somebody who has invented
this fatal falsehood. What was your object I care not to inquire,
knowing full well, that, if you had an object, you never would spare
friend or foe. Leave me. I have little wish to live; but I believe in
the power of truth. I will confront the Queen and tell her all. She will
credit what I say; if she do not, I can meet my fate; but I will not,
now or ever, entrust it to you.'
Thereupon Fakredeen burst into a flood of passionate tears, and,
throwing himself on the ground, kissed Eva's feet, and clung to her
garments which he embraced, sobbing, and moaning, and bestowing on her
endless phrases of affection, mixed with imprecations on his own head
and conduct.
'O Eva! my beloved Eva, sister of my soul, it is of no use telling you
any lies! Yes, I am that villain and that idiot who has brought about
all this misery, misery enough to turn me mad, and which, by a just
retribution, has destroyed all the brilliant fortunes which were at last
opening on me. This Frank stranger was the only bar to my union with
the sovereign of these mountains, whose beauty you have witnessed, whose
power, combined with my own, would found a kingdom.
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